The invention relates generally to electrical connectors, and more particularly to a shielded electrical connector assembly for blind-mating.
Electrical connectors are commonly used to interconnect electrical circuits or components to one another. In some applications, a receptacle connector may be mounted in an area where access to the receptacle is restricted for mating a plug assembly to the receptacle connector. For instance, the receptacle connector may be located in a recessed area or in an interior of an electronic device. Such receptacle locations are common in electronic devices having peripheral devices and accessories, such as, for example, a PC having a removable disk drive which is interchangeable with other types of disk drives or plug-in devices. In such situations, the process of mating a plug to the receptacle is often such that the engagement of the plug to the receptacle is not visually observable. In such instances, the mating process is referred to as blind mating of the plug and the receptacle.
In a blind mate connector assembly, typically, one of the plug and receptacle has some freedom to float or move transversely to the direction of mating to align itself with the other of the plug and receptacle. Conventionally, the plug and receptacle connectors are provided with complimentary mechanical alignment features such as a guide post on one of the connectors that is received in a channel or cavity in the other connector when the plug and receptacle connectors are mated. The alignment features provide guidance during the mating process and ensures proper engagement of the blind mating connector assembly.
Along with the general trend toward faster, smaller and higher performance electrical systems, particularly with regard to computer systems, there is an ongoing need for compact connector assemblies to occupy smaller spaces while also providing adequate electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding to preserve signal quality. However, providing shielding for EMI suppression and alignment features in a blind-mate connector tends to add to the bulk of the connector assembly and to the space occupied by the connector assembly in use. It would be desirable to provide a blind mate connector assembly having EMI shielding in a more compact configuration for use with increasingly smaller devices.